Worming etc

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Member Since 05/15/2013

Barked: Wed May 15, '13 3:39am PST

I have two bearded collies, 5 year old male & 4 year old bitch. Because of their long hair, during Summer we have always used Prac-tic to combat tics, in conjunction with worming tablet - Milbemax once every 3 months. Over winter our vets put them on Advocat with Milbemax, same dosage.

We have a Premier Plan for each dog with our vet, following their recommendation to spread the cost, which we find very useful, this covers all their annual treatments - vaccinations, worming, flea control etc together with associated health check consultations and clearly saves us paying for each visit and treatments.

Suddenly, they are telling us that due to Lung Worm, the 3 monthly Milbemax worming with Prac-tic during the Summer is not enough and this now needs to be done monthly. This is not covered by our plan and costs an extra £40 in total per quarter. I have spoken with our breeder and groomer, who clearly have regular contact with alot of other dog breeders in different areas and individual dog owners. They are not aware of an epidemic of lung worm, and one response was that this was scaremongering - the previous dosage was always sufficient before.

Has anyone heard of this becoming prevelant - the cynical side of me says that this is a means to make extra money - but if it really is becoming a problem we will just have to "suck it up" as we would not put our animals health in jeapardy. The other option they offered was the treatment collar - again an additional expense - but with beardies you cannot let them wear collars 24/7 as their hair just tangles around it and gets severely knotted.

First of all, I would call all area vets, including your own, and find out exactly HOW MANY dogs they have treated for lungworm and how many of them were on the Milbemax. They should have these numbers charted somewhere.
Next, I would contact the manufacturer of the Milbemax and find out what they recommend as far as monthly or every three months.
If lungworm isn't really that prevalent in your locale, then I would continue as you are.
Lungworm is almost non-existent in our area, yet we have one local vet who had a client with it (a stray dog from a completely different region of the US), and now is insisting their clients add lungworm preventative to their dogs monthly preventatives. This one dog is the ONLY one I have ever heard of having it, and this vet did not test for it, she only "suspected" the dog had it and therefore was treating for it. Frankly, in this case I consider it overkill.

Thanks - I should add that the vet told me that only the other day they had a bitch in for spaying, she began bleeding during recovery, like you I was told - they "suspected" it to be lungworm, but had not tested it - when I spoke to the breeder of my second dog, she got told the same story by the same vet a year ago!!!!!!

I have looked on website for Milbemax - it states every 3 months unless your vet advises otherwise - so I guess that covers them!! However, if after finding no evidence of a spread of this desease,I go against their advice - would the insurance company then not pay out for the treatment!!!

I am also going to ask the insurance company if they have had any cases they have had to pay out for!

Well, that insurance question is a toughy... since the company says "Unless directed otherwise by your vet", it COULD indicate to the insurance company that you were not following vet's directions.
I guess checking with the insurance company is the next step. Maybe give them a link to Milbemax's webpage??
ETA: without proper bloodwork your vet has no idea that the bleeding dog might have had a low clotting factor from vWD, or some other bleeding disorder not related to the lungworm at all, disorders which are not at all uncommon in dogs.

I wish you had pictures of your gorgeous Beardies! But, I really think you need to look into natural parasite prevention. Your dogs’ bodies are being absolutely flooded with chemicals, poisons and pesticides on a constant basis! Combine that with vaccines and you are asking for allergies, autoimmune disorders, cancers, etc. I am absolutely astonished at the amount of pesticides going into these dog’s bodies! Honestly, I’m very surprised neither of them is suffering from serious medical problems. Take the time to research natural worming herbs. To prevent lungworms, you really need to keep their immune system healthy, too. To prevent ALL worms, I recommend putting your dogs on eastern black walnut, wormseed, ginger, male fern and oat. I would stop giving all the other pesticides immediately. My dogs wear the Only Natural Pet EasyDefense Flea & Tick Tag and it works great!
http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/products/Only-Natural-Pet-Easy Defense-Flea-Tick-Tag/999024.aspx